The Honors Thesis Journey Part Two: Tania Sequeira

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In November 2024, tsequeira [at] umass [dot] edu (Tania Sequeira) shared with the Honors College the progress she had made on her thesis project. She is using the project as an opportunity to create a creative portfolio about Kashmir, focusing on how India and Pakistan view the region, as well as how the people of Kashmir feel about the conflict. Tania also expressed that the thesis is a valuable chance for her to explore her creative side while deepening her understanding of a topic she is passionate about.

In November, she wrote the literature review for her project and reviewed several sources that inspired her work. She spent much of her time trying to better understand the conflict in Kashmir, one of the longest-running conflicts in the world.

Recently, we caught up with Tania to see the progress she has made on her thesis. 

Q: Have there been any changes to your creative portfolio plans?

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One of Tania's political cartoons

“A big change that I made from my last interview to now is to focus exclusively on political cartoons, just because they have a significance to the conflict in Kashmir as a lot of political cartoonists and journalists in general are being attacked or censored by authorities in Kashmir.

"I wanted to focus on political cartoons to kind of make a statement on this injustice that's happening." 

And a big thing that I've been focusing on or grappling with is how to portray people of color. There's been a history of racist depictions of people of color in political cartoons, and I wanted to avoid that while still maintaining the overall essence of a political cartoon. So what I've been doing is instead of exaggerating the facial features of Kashmir's, I've been focusing on emphasizing lining and shadowing.” 

Q: What are your final steps?

“I hope to finish all of them soon. And once I do, I will make an artist statement talking about what I did and what creative choices I made and why I made them. And also a reflection on what I might've done or could have done differently. And if there have been any updates on the conflict in the past few months that I could have talked about.”

Q: Did you present your research project at the Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference (MassURC)? 

“I presented at this year's MassURC! If anyone was interested in learning more about my thesis or seeing a few cartoons, they could stop by and chat with me.”

Tania presenting at MassURC 2025; Photo: Eva Trainer

Thank you, Tania, for bringing us along on your thesis journey, and good luck with the final stages of your creative portfolio!